


The Space Between Us

by lovelydarkanddeep



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, BUT IT ENDS WELL I PROMISE BABIES, Emperor Kylo Ren, F/M, Grab some chocolate, I didn't do my job, If this doesn't make you cry, Major character death - Freeform, Redeemed Ben Solo, Sad with a Happy Ending, Tissues Might Be Needed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 13:00:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13248759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelydarkanddeep/pseuds/lovelydarkanddeep
Summary: "'I love you, sweetheart,' he whispers again, a last caress on her face, before he steps into the light of the doorway and the fire of the blasters.- - -Filled for this prompt: 35. “Before I do this, I need you to know that I have always loved you.”





	The Space Between Us

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry

She wasn’t expecting Kylo Ren - Ben Solo - to leave the First Order just weeks after he’d assumed the title of Supreme Leader.

He up and defected, leaving the Order in shambles and murderously vindictive. He was wanted across the entire galaxy, and if she didn’t love the damned nerfherder so much then even  _she_  would kill him for the bounty on his head.

So when the bond suddenly clicks into place one day, it has her smiling. She knew he would find her, sooner or later. She knew he'd come home to her.

_Missed me?_

Her smile drops as she realizes with sudden horror that he’s in pain - can feel it radiating from her side and leg like fire.

Blaster wounds.

_Ben?_

Her voice sounds scared, even to her own ears.

_I’m here, sweetheart. But not for long._

She sucks in a gasp, dropping everything she’s doing, a wrench falling from her hands and clanging to the hangar floor with finality.

_What- Why are you- What’s going on?_

She can’t think straight, can’t breathe suddenly, her chest so constricted she feels as though she is suffocating.

_The Order found me. Hux is giving me a minute to come out or he’ll blow up the entire planet I’m on._

Rey’s hands are shaking, and bile crawls up her throat.

_Why can’t you leave? Just escape. Come to me, we’ll help you._

She can almost see him shaking his head.

_No, he’ll still blow up the planet and then all those lives will be on my hands. There are enough already without adding them too._

She sucks in a dry sob, unable to cry, unable to do much more than be sick right there on the hangar floor.

_Ben, please. We’re meant to be together, there’s always hope-_

He’s rising now, and it’s so painful, but he does it anyway.

_I know, sweetheart. I have hope. Hope that I won’t fuck up our fate again. Hope that maybe, in some other life, some other time, we’ll find the happy ending we deserve._

She’s desperate now, pleading, begging.

_No, Ben, please. Find a way. Come home to me. I-I love you._

A chuckle from his end, pained and yet resigned. Peaceful in his choice.

 _I know_ , he echoes again.

She can practically see him moving to the door of his ship, his arms raised despite the burning pain that lances down his -  _their_  - side.

He pauses before the door, hearing Hux’s garbled voice through the com units the troopers wear.

He wonders vaguely if they are scared to die if he doesn’t comply, if they know that Hux will blow up the planet with them on it.

It matters little now.

He breathes deeply, ignoring the pain, ignoring everything but that starlit tether that binds their souls to one another.

_Before I do this, I need you to know that I have always loved you._

_Ben,_ she sobs in response, a mess on the floor of the hangar. Resistance fighters crowd around her, not knowing what is happening.

 _I love you, sweetheart_ , he whispers again, a last caress on her face,before he steps into the light of the doorway and the fire of the blasters.

_“BEN - NO!”_

She screams it aloud, across the bond, across the entire galaxy.

But it isn’t loud enough.

* * *

They say a force bond cannot be broken.

And it can’t.

Rey knows this in the way her chest aches, hollow, like a piece of her has been ripped out and the jagged edges sewn over. It doesn’t matter how many days pass - years. It still feels the same.

She knows this as she watches the sunset and thinks she feels a phantom hand brushing back her hair, caressing the swell of her cheekbone.

Knows it as she meditates and feels a brief flash of warmth that she desperately tries to cling to but always slips through her fingers like water.

And, finally, she knows it when, surrounded by her family and friends, she closes her eyes for the last time to find Ben there.

 _Waiting_.

He snaps back into her like a missing puzzle piece, the bond once more shining and whole between them.

She grins.

His smile is just as beautiful, and, for the first time, she sees him without the burden of grief weighing down his shoulders.

“Hello, sweetheart,” he says.

She can’t believe she’d forgotten the sound of his voice.

But there are no tears between them, no aching sorrow. There is only a knowledge that here, in this place, they can at last have the happy ending they deserve.

He offers her one hand, expectant.

And, this time, she finally takes it.

**Author's Note:**

> Lol no I'm not


End file.
